Black Hole Information, Wormholes, and Quantum Gravity

Stephen Hawking made a number of memorable contributions to physics, but perhaps his greatest was a puzzle: what happens to information that falls into a black hole? The question sits squarely at the overlap of quantum mechanics and gravitation, an area in which direct experimental input is hard to come by, so a great number of leading theoretical physicists have been thinking about it for decades. Now there is a possibility that physicists might have made some progress, by showing how subtle effects relate the radiation leaving a black hole to what’s going on inside. Netta Engelhardt is one of the contributors to these recent advances, and together we go through the black hole information puzzle, why wormholes might be important to the story, and what it all might teach us about quantum gravity.

The speaker: Netta Engelhardt

Netta Engelhardt is a professor at the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. She works on quantum gravity: the theory describing the fundamental quantum nature of gravitational phenomena. She investigates black holes, singularities, and the fundamental nature of spacetime. She received the New Horizons in Physics Prize in 2021 and more recently the Gribov medal in 2023.  

Hun Hun

Hun Hun is a Brussels-based electronic music duo made up of Jimmy (Hun) and Noé (Hun). Following a trip to Istanbul, the two brothers set about creating mini sound odysseys with new age, ambient and tribal overtones. Hun Hun's compositions are experimental and timeless, playing on the repetition of ancient melodies and rhythms. Ready to get lost in the maze of the big bazaar?